This post originally appeared at www.sendouts.com.

 

Written by Taylor.

 

We are all familiar with dystopias where technology runs amuck. Movies like, Transformers, the Matrix, and I-Robot draw upon a fear that man’s reliance on a machine is somehow destructive to society. In the case of cell phones, email, and messaging, it’s easy to see where Hollywood script writers might have drawn their inspiration.

The average American sends 228 corporate emails per day, types out 400 text messages per month, and talks on the phone for a whopping 6,552 minutes per year. There may be more interaction among Americans than ever before but there are lingering concerns as to the quality of those technology based conversations.

 

A Recruiter’s Best Friend…

At first glance devices like the telephone, email, and instant messenger appear to be a recruiter’s best friend. Mike in New Jersey can call a company in California, send an email blast out to the office, and open an IM chat all between sips of his morning coffee.

 

But at What Cost?

Yet, these communication tools operate at a cost to the personal relationships that form the backbone of the recruiting industry. A telephone omits one’s body language, personality is sacrificed in the sheer magnitude of daily emails, and instant messenger convos don’t even read like English.  In this line of work recruiters must constantly struggle with ways to make the impersonal nature of digital communication feel more intimate.

 

Is Social Media the Solution?

One solution to the growing anonymity of communication can be found in popular social media sites like LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. These sites allow people to connect to each other along the same avenues that traditional communication has created, but with an added emphasis on personality. The pictures associated with profiles, comprehensive contact information, and lists of shared friends allow people to distinguish each other in the flood of virtual conversations. The best recruiters in the future will be those that communicate on the friendlier terms of social media and business oriented sites like the up and coming LinkedIn.

 

How many times have you left a phone message that was never returned? Sent an email of introduction with no response? Written a text message that was blatantly ignored?

 

Do you see social media as an improvement upon the current means of communication?

 

 

image from Theshay West.